Household, Geography & Contextual Variables

Age

Both the Older and Young Men data sets include information on the respondent's age as of the initial survey year and date of birth. The initial survey year age variables were provided by the Census Bureau based on information collected during the 1966 household screening. As age inconsistencies were discovered, Census made date of birth information available in the late 1970s. Date of birth and age data were also collected in later surveys during fielding of the "Household Roster" (HHR) section of the questionnaire. Data for reported age and birth dates include a small number of inconsistencies; therefore, attempts to restrict the universe according to age-related variables may have an unwanted result. The cohort-specific User Notes at the end of this section discuss some of the idiosyncratic aspects of these variables.

In addition to the respondent-specific variables discussed in this section, the date of birth and/or age variables for other household members are also available; see the Household Composition section for more information.

Older Men Cohort

Young Men Cohort

Older Men

The Older Men data set contains a respondent age variable ('Age, 66') for the initial survey year and two date of birth variables, i.e., 'Day of R's Birth,' 'Month of R's Birth,' and 'Year of R's Birth' for 1966 and a month and year variable for the 1981 survey year. Age at death was calculated by Census at the time of the 1990 interview for 2,660 respondents; data were derived from Census records and month/day/year of death information collected from the widows of respondents. Table OM1 lists reference numbers and source information for these Older Men variables. Table OM2 provides the age of the respondents during the 1966-83 surveys, and Table OM3 presents information about the respondents' ages at death or the 1990 interview.

Table OM1. Age, Date of Birth & Date of Death Variables: Older Men

Variable

1966

1981

1990

Date of Birth of R

R00022.01-R00022.03 (Census)

R05051.-R05052. (HHR)

--

Age of R

R00022. (Census)

--

--

Age of R at Death

--

--

R07075.-R07077. (Census)

Table OM2. Ages of Interviewed Respondents by Survey Year (Unweighted): Older Men

Age of R on June 30

Survey Year

1966

1967

1968

1969

1971

1973

1975

1976

1978

1980

1981

1983

39

1

40

1

41

1

1

42

1

1

43

1

1

44

7

1

1

1

45

278

7

1

46

386

266

7

1

1

1

47

374

364

260

6

48

349

346

359

255

1

1

49

356

331

346

334

7

50

355

325

325

325

247

1

1

51

355

338

315

310

328

7

1

52

346

338

337

298

313

238

1

53

346

324

336

322

298

316

6

1

1

54

316

334

322

319

289

304

232

5

55

326

301

326

308

301

282

293

210

1

1

56

309

306

292

308

309

277

285

280

6

1

57

277

293

293

274

291

288

277

277

198

1

58

270

263

282

277

296

284

260

261

264

6

1

1

59

275

261

259

263

263

275

281

246

253

190

6

60

65

259

254

236

253

278

266

260

245

250

185

1

61

7

61

248

239

247

246

262

247

232

239

231

6

62

2

7

60

227

231

241

262

246

240

237

237

174

63

2

2

7

57

218

231

235

241

229

219

227

223

64

2

2

7

208

212

229

221

223

225

204

233

65

2

2

2

52

205

211

218

226

217

211

221

66

2

2

7

196

199

190

203

203

205

188

67

2

2

48

193

181

202

209

189

199

68

2

2

7

176

181

172

188

193

182

69

1

2

46

162

165

190

175

180

70

2

2

6

43

167

154

183

179

71

1

2

6

144

149

140

160

72

2

2

2

37

148

142

165

73

2

5

128

138

127

74

1

2

2

35

120

132

75

2

1

6

32

123

76

1

2

6

98

77

2

1

2

30

78

1

1

5

79

1

2

2

80

2

1

82

2

Total Interviewed

5020

4744

4648

4381

4175

3951

3732

3487

3219

3001

2832

2633

Not Interviewed

--

276

372

639

845

1069

1288

1533

1801

2019

2188

2387

Not Available1

13

11

10

7

7

6

4

3

1

1

1

1

Note: This table is based on R00022.01-R00022.03, R05051., and R05052.; the 1981 date of birth variables were used when available. June was imputed for missing months of birth; respondents with missing birth years are in the "not available" category.

1 Includes one extreme outlier (age 20 in 1966) who was interviewed in every survey year.

Table OM3. Ages at Death & at Interview by Race (Unweighted): 1990 Older Men

Age

Age at Death

Age at 1990 Interview

Total

Percent

Non-black

Black

Total

Percent

Non-black

Black

47

2

1

1

1

48

9

1

3

6

49

19

1

10

9

50

9

1

5

4

51

24

1

14

10

52

30

1.1

21

9

53

30

1.1

23

7

54

44

1.6

29

15

55

45

1.7

27

18

56

64

2.4

44

20

57

65

2.4

45

20

58

73

2.7

46

27

59

78

2.9

48

30

60

92

3.4

59

33

61

89

3.3

61

28

62

104

3.9

71

33

63

91

3.4

57

34

64

109

4.0

75

34

65

100

3.7

75

25

1

1

1

--

66

114

4.2

69

45

--

--

--

--

67

116

4.3

76

40

--

--

--

--

68

130

4.8

86

44

3

1

3

--

69

133

4.9

76

57

94

4.5

73

21

70

119

4.4

82

37

212

10.1

166

46

71

136

5.1

87

49

193

9.2

144

49

72

114

4.2

77

37

201

9.6

151

50

73

117

4.3

80

37

167

8.0

126

41

74

92

3.4

69

23

177

8.5

138

39

75

85

3.2

57

28

136

6.5

99

37

76

99

3.7

67

32

155

7.4

117

38

77

80

3.0

57

23

137

6.6

115

22

78

64

2.4

47

17

135

6.5

99

36

79

57

2.1

44

13

111

5.3

85

26

80

42

1.6

34

8

99

4.7

72

27

81

41

1.5

32

9

82

3.9

65

17

82

21

1

16

5

75

3.6

57

18

83

20

1

15

5

68

3.3

59

9

84

2

1

--

2

33

1.6

25

8

85

1

1

1

--

2

1

1

1

86

--

--

--

--

1

1

1

--

87

--

--

--

--

1

1

--

1

89

--

--

--

--

1

1

--

1

Missing

33

1.2

--

--

8

1

6

2

Total

2693

100

1786

874

2092

100

1603

489

Note: Age at death based on R07075. Age at 1990 interview date based on R00022.01-R00022.03, R05051. and R05052., and R06010.-R06012. The 1981 date of birth variables were used when available; missing birth months were imputed to June and missing birth days were imputed to 15. Missing 1990 interview dates were not imputed.

1 Less than one percent.

User Notes

The user is encouraged to carefully examine all age and birth date variables when performing any age-related analysis. Birth data collected at the time of screening may have been provided by a family member, giving rise to possible inconsistencies when comparing a respondent's reported age with age calculated from date of birth. In cases where age was unknown, interviewers were directed to obtain a "best estimate" of a respondent's "exact age" at the time of screening and to make corrections later if possible. Furthermore, a respondent may be inconsistent in different interviews in reporting his age. The date of birth inconsistencies are documented in the codebook. Birth date corrections were made in 1981. The birth date corrections should be used carefully and the user is advised to make any additional corrections on a case-by-case basis.

There are varying numbers of out-of-scope cases in the Original Cohorts for two reasons: (1) the birth date variables in a handful of cases are inconsistent with the stated age of the respondent, and (2) some borderline cases that may actually be in scope for the calendar year of the survey are not necessarily in scope at the time the interview took place. CHRR has investigated causes of birth date inconsistencies and has discovered that they arise from birth data originally provided by Census. Unfortunately, these data are generally not recoverable since many of the affected respondents have since attrited. An additional difficulty is that the date of birth for some cases is not reported.

It may be to the user's advantage to calculate his or her own variable for age based on the reported date of birth. When birth date variables are either unavailable or out of scope, the user may wish to investigate other age-related variables in order to establish age.

There are several cases in the Older Men database that are more than one year out of scope when age is calculated from date of birth. Although date of birth was asked again during the 1981 survey, those particular out of scope cases were not surveyed in that year. The user should consult the codebook for case identification codes; other age-related variables may be investigated in order to decide whether to include a particular case in an analysis. In addition, there are 12 cases in the initial survey year with missing birth dates so that an attempt to create an age based on date of birth will result, depending on the algorithm used, in missing or possibly even erroneous ages.

Survey Instruments: Ages and birth dates of respondents were derived from the 1966 household screener. Respondent's date of birth was collected during select years in the "Household Roster" section of the survey.